Scammers Are Now Using Popular Religious Leaders To Steal Money

While the Better Business Bureau’s (BBB) Consumer News and Opinion blog may not be among the Internet’s most-read sites, it does provide some viable advice about how Americans can protect themselves against predatory practices. Case-in-point: Recently, the BBB penned a piece entitled, “Scammers Set Up Fake Facebook Profiles for Religious Leaders” — a warning post that Joel Osteen fans, among others, might want to pay attention to.

Con artists have apparently taken to a new tactic: Using religious figures to trick unsuspecting Facebook users into donating money to nonsense ploys. The BBB charges that these people pretend to be pastors, then they scam people out of their resources for “non-existent causes.”

The consumer watchdog explains that people may see what they assume to be the official page of their favorite preacher — only, many, many times, it’s an imposter. After they “friend” the person and receive inspirational posts and photos, something changes.